Tobias Wolff's Bullet In The Brain

Anders is strangely aroused, elated by these final words, their pure unexpectedness and their music. This is in contrast to the robber's language, which is slang, crude and inauthentic. The robber is portrayed as sensitive and self- absorbed with a strong persecution complex and murderous temper. The robber is also stupid and heartless. He could have just knocked down Anders with a pistol so as not to attract the cops. Instead he shoots him.

The central idea of ‘’Guts” is Gary Paulsen’s life before becoming a famous writer. Some of his ideas for his books are based on his life. In chapter 1 of ‘’Guts’’ Paulsen writes about living in a small prairie town and volunteering to answer emergency calls. Paulsen writes ‘’ We answered calls to highway wrecks,farm accidents, poisonings, gunshot accidents, and many,many heart attacks.’’ I his story ‘’Guts he writes about someone who changes his life forever. This was a man looked directly into his eyes before he had passed away. Like Paulsen said ‘’ His eyes looked into mine’’ That man was used in ‘’Hatchet’’ as the pilot in the plane with Brain.

Tobias Wolff’s short story, “That Room” is a very suspenseful story that has the reader on the edge of their seat while reading it. Suspense and excitement is created through the plot and theme of the story which are both developed through four main literary devices. In the story, the narrator is put into what is potentially a life or death situation and it is at this point that he becomes aware that one is never really in full control of his or her own life. Throughout this literary analysis I will discuss the plot and theme of the story in terms of how Wolff uses setting, tone, characterization, and symbolism to enhance both the theme and the plot.

In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, main character Liesel struggles to maintain the innocence of her childhood while combating the beliefs and hardships of living in Nazi Germany. The most predominant theme in this book was the use of fear and its complete and pure power when combined with death. As Mark Twain once said, “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” This quote truly explains the essence of The Book Thief, the fundamental reason being that death was the narrator. Which from start to finish, displayed the fears of a multitude of different people and how they see death, but more importantly how death sees them.

Imagine death. What happens in your final moments? Are you going to think about your loved ones or just simply reminisce on one of the happiest moments of your existence? What would be your very final thought to think? The short story, “Bullet in the Brain”, is a very intriguing, well-articulated fictional writing piece that captures what happens in the split second of death through the main character Anders. Written by Tobias Wolff, the story follows a man who finds the cliché in anything and his final thoughts of his life as a bullet is moving through his brain. Saying I enjoyed this story would be the understatement of the century. The short story is purely brilliant and one of the most thought-provoking stories I have read in a while.

Words are everywhere, words make up books, and the power of words make The Book Thief which will never be able to be improved upon. Words help us communicate with others, but mainly they have positive and negative sides to them. In the novel, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Death narrates the story while Liesel Meminger also tells her story of living in Nazi, Germany. We will discuss how there are many people such as Max Vandenburg and Liesel Meminger who choose to use to use their power of words in the positive way. We will also discuss how people also like to use their power of words in the negative way such as Adolf Hitler. The power of words are very effective especially in Markus Zusak’s writing, and we’ll discuss the main parts of the book which have been effected with the power of words.

Along in with the author’s use of metaphors is the frequent use of imagery. In this reading, it is simple to envision the scenes as the different scenarios are explained and the audience can easily picture Staples in the places he is describing and also the people he comes across. Perhaps the most powerful and memorable imagery is provided in the author’s description of people’s different reactions and faces when they come into contact with him. Actions speak volumes and an immediate change of facial expression is possibly one of the

The acts of human nature can become a very difficult concept to understand. Markus Zusak uses Death throughout the The Book Thief to express the complexity of human nature. Death illustrates how complicated beings humans are and how they hold the capacity to act in both evil and beautiful ways. Throughout the novel Death helps give readers insight to the ignorance displayed and the pain it may cause a person. In the most troublesome and discriminatory times of the Holocaust, Death will point out the beautiful acts of compassion carried out by characters involved in the novel. Sometimes beauty and pain is mixed within the sacrifice some make for those they love and are loyal to.

In any great work of literature, each action and thought should contribute to the underlying meaning of the entire work. No action should exist for its own sake; it must instead advance the plot and reinforce the symbolism of both the characters’ actions as well as the truth of what the composer or author is trying to convey. This is especially true of acts of violence; great literature must carefully articulate the violence into a logical meaning. Most importantly, violence and acts of extreme passion work best when communicating a character’s inner-struggles as they relate to the motive and effect of each scene and action.

Tobias Wolff uses imagery in his short story “Bullet in the Brain” provides a visual portrait that captures attention. He clarifies in an interview with Sanford University what short stories require, “You want large results from it, and you 're compelled by its very shortness to using all your resources of language, form and understanding” (Schrieberg 1998). He uses language in the story offering instances of imagery to describe the media critic. Anders is portrayed as weary, and elegantly savage in his reviews. In each scene of the story Anders observes and uses biting words to offer his approval or distaste. He uses words to critique events while waiting with the customers at the bank, with the thieves and with the shot starting his recollections. There is a deeper vision into his brain not only with the speeding bullet but incite to words. The use of imagery in the short story provides a distorted image of the character Anders, not the real image of a man with the passion for words and the happiness they create.

“The Book Thief” presented a story filled with various themes that comprised a powerful plot line. Although there were many themes in the story, there was one that stood out to me more than others. In the process of reading the book, the theme of suffering affected me the most. The definition of the word suffer is to experience or be subjected to something bad or unpleasant. Different characters within the story are subjected to dreadful feelings and are therefore suffering. Through my analyzation, I observed the three different types of suffering that the characters experienced: guilt, feelings of emptiness, and anxiety. The characters of “The Book Thief” experience these three types of suffering in different ways.

In the short story Bullet in the Brain, Tobias Wolff creates a sarcastically doughty character by the name of Anders. However, it becomes transparent that beneath this stone-cold portrayal of a man resides a troubled past. Throughout the story, Ander’s life struggles slowly begin to show through the cracks, giving the reader insight into what has turned him into such a hateful man. Another interesting character in the story is the man who takes charge of the robbery. He remains unnamed for the entirety of the happenings, and, although he is not alone in committing this crime, plays an important role in framing the theme of Wolff’s work. Wolff uses literary strategies such as imagery and extreme detail to pull the reader into the story, lock in their attention, and relate the symbolism and emotion of what’s happening. These devices have a great effect on the story.

“ Sometimes you need conflict in order to come up with a solution. Through weakness oftentimes, you can not make the right sort of settlement, so I am aggressive, but I also get things done, and in the end, everybody likes me”( Donald Trump). This quote kind of means that you can not come up with a solution if there are no problems. In literature, so many authors use the literary element conflict to develop their stories. Conflict in the terms of literature is split into three branches, there is Man against Self, Man against Man, Man against Nature. In the short writing “Bullet in the brain”, by Tobias Wolff; the main character Anders faces all three conflicts. Conflicts causes humans to react in other ways depending on how big of

Words can influence the mind in many ways that thought may not be able to. They are carefully placed and shared in different ways by each and every individual. Words have powerful impacts and can majorly impact how one may think, feel, or even lead others to feel. Written by Markus Zusak, “The Book Thief” describes a story of an innocent foster girl, Liesel Meminger, who resides in Munich, Germany at one of the most troubling time periods in history, Nazi Germany. A tale narrated by the one and only Death himself, shows the perspective from his point of view, as well as others, describing how Liesel had been seized away from her birth mother at a young age, and put into a foster family. Her new family, the Hubermanns. As she matures and grows into a more critical thinker, understanding and analyzing everything that carefully happens around her. Her foster-father, Hans guides her and teaches her how to read, which little does she know sparks her journey, the art of stealing books. Liesel soon discovers that words aren 't simply lines on a page, they are strong emotions packed into a form that merely is held in her delicate hands. Not only did she hold the pages of emotion, she held a power, a dangerous weapon of words, a weapon of control, and every book that she had stolen was giving her unimaginable power that made her think in ways that she would’ve never thought she could have. As with Nazi propaganda, and a gift that enabled her to broaden her worldview. Liesel evolves

aims his focal point at imagery to provide vivid and rich details. Literary devices play a crucial